Senseless

American businessman Elliott Gast (Jason Behr) is kidnapped and imprisoned in a completely white cell.  His captors reveal that they are broadcasting Elliott’s imprisonment on the Internet to raise money for their terrorist activities.  They don’t plan to kill him; instead, they want to change him by taking away what means the most to him – his senses. 

As Elliott, Jason Behr must carry the film, a difficult task as he spends almost the entire movie in a (rather large) cell, with nothing to do besides wait for the next act of violence to befall him.  It is an impressive performance.  His character is flawed but sympathetic, and his visible deterioration throughout the experience is realistically difficult to watch.

Presumably, the audience knows what the five senses are, so we know what is going to happen to Elliott.  Thanks to the movie poster and DVD cover, we also know the method used for eliminating his last sense.  This is disappointing because, aside from the torture, there is not a whole lot going on in Senseless.  It is never really clear what exactly Elliott’s captors stand for.  It seems that they chose Elliott as their victim because he’s a capitalist American businessman, but the group is only too happy to capitalize on his suffering by using him to raise money for their operations (exactly what these are is never explained).

I get that it’s a commentary on reality TV culture and desensitization, but the fact that the torture is being streamed on the Internet is preposterous.  I don’t mean that it’s unbelievable that people would watch it (sadly, I’m sure they would), but his imprisonment lasts for more than a month, with newspaper articles and campaigners calling for his release.  Surely someone would be able to trace where the Internet transmissions were coming from and step in to save him. 

Director Simon Hynd makes some interesting choices, but doesn’t fully commit to them.  When Elliott is stripped of his hearing, Hynd alternates between entirely silent passages, sequences where the sound is muffled, and scenes where… the sound is completely normal.  It would have been much more effective if the sound design had remained consistent.  Ultimately, Senseless has an interesting premise, but the movie is too flawed to really recommend.